Magewell USB Capture HDMI

04/27/2016

There are many HDMI capture cards out on the market, so sometimes its hard to find out which one that you really need - fortunately we found a pretty great one and we are happy to share our thoughts and recommend it!

Magewell's USB Capture HDMI box is a truly plug and play USB 3.0 device. It does not need any drivers to be installed, and it does not even need an external power source. This tiny device only has an USB 3.0 port and HDMI input. The unit is made of metal and feels well-made.

It supports up to 1920x1080 resolution (1080p) at 60Hz with hardware accelerated up/downscaling - click for the full tech specs - and again, the unit is fully Plug & Play, you really don't need to install or periodically update drivers, it works well out of the box.

Delay is always important with capture boxes - we've measured 2-3 frames delay which is totally acceptable. It could be warm, even hot while using it, but it seems that does not affect performance or the lifetime of the product.

According to Magewell, the housing feels hot because the metal can transfer the heat so the heat from the chip is not kept within the housing, and this is good for the chip.

Using it in CoGe is really easy, just create a VideoInput and select XI100DUSB-HDMI and you are ready to go, just like with a camera. If you are capturing at a different resolution than 1080p with the device, you might want to change the capturing resolution of the VideoInput gadget in CoGe with the prefs button on the right side of the Input selector popup. Pricing is around $300.

If you are looking for a reliable, USB 3.0 video capture dongle, this device could be a great choice.

Magewell also offers USB Capture SDI dongles - and DVI dongles will be available in the future.